ViewtifulGaz
2014
An ambitious roguelike Castlevania with interesting ideas but probably the most underbaked execution I’ve ever seen.
If this was a studios first game I’d be impressed, but it is so rough I’m amazed it was released in the state it is.
It’s intended to have Smash Bros. style controls which just barely works.
Every enemy in the game has the same(ish) skill set as you, but are much much better than you and are constantly reading your inputs, insta-grabbing, and perfect parrying you.
I played in co-op which is apparently supposed to have friendly fire on, but I can’t imagine a more hellosh experience when confined to a small battle arena with this combat system.
You might be curious to try it out and see how well it executes on its ideas: do not.
Also the online is occasionally non-functional.
If this was a studios first game I’d be impressed, but it is so rough I’m amazed it was released in the state it is.
It’s intended to have Smash Bros. style controls which just barely works.
Every enemy in the game has the same(ish) skill set as you, but are much much better than you and are constantly reading your inputs, insta-grabbing, and perfect parrying you.
I played in co-op which is apparently supposed to have friendly fire on, but I can’t imagine a more hellosh experience when confined to a small battle arena with this combat system.
You might be curious to try it out and see how well it executes on its ideas: do not.
Also the online is occasionally non-functional.
2017
Considering the reputation this game has, I was shocked by how janky the whole thing feels, which really put a dampener on my experience.
Loads of wee collision bugs, a few progression bugs, a floaty character, a camera that can’t decide what it’s doing… it’s just really rough and I didn’t find it very fun to play.
None of the levels really inspired me. The incredibly vertical first level was a nightmare until I worked out you could change the camera behaviour in the settings (an option which apparently doesn’t exist on console!) so I could look down.
The boss fights all outstay their welcome a surprising amount.
I could go on about the character controller, but I just wasn’t feeling it.
The 3D art style didn’t hit for me at all, and didn’t manage to capture the very charming 2D work.
It also has one of the worst Scottish accents I’ve come across and had me sliding that voice volume right to zero.
It’s a real shame for me, because there’s obviously a huge amount of passion here, and I would definitely play the team’s next efforts. You can see, as you go through the game, that they got better as they made it.
Sorry this is a downer! I wish I liked it more!
Loads of wee collision bugs, a few progression bugs, a floaty character, a camera that can’t decide what it’s doing… it’s just really rough and I didn’t find it very fun to play.
None of the levels really inspired me. The incredibly vertical first level was a nightmare until I worked out you could change the camera behaviour in the settings (an option which apparently doesn’t exist on console!) so I could look down.
The boss fights all outstay their welcome a surprising amount.
I could go on about the character controller, but I just wasn’t feeling it.
The 3D art style didn’t hit for me at all, and didn’t manage to capture the very charming 2D work.
It also has one of the worst Scottish accents I’ve come across and had me sliding that voice volume right to zero.
It’s a real shame for me, because there’s obviously a huge amount of passion here, and I would definitely play the team’s next efforts. You can see, as you go through the game, that they got better as they made it.
Sorry this is a downer! I wish I liked it more!
2016
Yeah... It's fine!
Looks great, well written and acted, but it's so full of stuff that comes to nothing (I know it's intentional) that the whole thing was just a bit deflating at the end.
Had a fair few technical issues with it too, clearly skipping a few bits of plot/dialogue as a result, which did not help.
I've put it off and expected to really enjoy it, but yeah, pretty disappointed! Oh well!
Looks great, well written and acted, but it's so full of stuff that comes to nothing (I know it's intentional) that the whole thing was just a bit deflating at the end.
Had a fair few technical issues with it too, clearly skipping a few bits of plot/dialogue as a result, which did not help.
I've put it off and expected to really enjoy it, but yeah, pretty disappointed! Oh well!
2003
It's insane that this came out AFTER Devil May Cry.
Imagine DMC and Drakengard had a kid, but it was dogshit.
Every fight with a monster spawner ended up with me having to jump slash it for like a minute. Thinking I was going insane I looked at multiple lets plays and apparently that's just what the game is.
https://youtu.be/aQIGi1cfA-U?si=hT5f13bUhlzJg2PO&t=3585
Cannot recommend at all
Imagine DMC and Drakengard had a kid, but it was dogshit.
Every fight with a monster spawner ended up with me having to jump slash it for like a minute. Thinking I was going insane I looked at multiple lets plays and apparently that's just what the game is.
https://youtu.be/aQIGi1cfA-U?si=hT5f13bUhlzJg2PO&t=3585
Cannot recommend at all
This made me retroactively hate the game.
I think I almost really enjoyed this. There's a bunch of stuff I love like levelling a load of different classes and finding some broken combinations between them, and the combat is mostly pretty fun!
On the other hand, some of the boss fights (and bits of combat in general) feel super rough and enemies not flinching (outside of specific moves) always feels bad.
The game throws so much loot at you, it feels like you're constantly just swapping stuff out. There's a blacksmith which I NEVER used, but I assume it becomes important in the post-game.
I feel like I never really got into it as much as I could, so I reckon I'll pick up the DLCs.
The story is mostly whatever, but I really enjoyed the final act.
On the other hand, some of the boss fights (and bits of combat in general) feel super rough and enemies not flinching (outside of specific moves) always feels bad.
The game throws so much loot at you, it feels like you're constantly just swapping stuff out. There's a blacksmith which I NEVER used, but I assume it becomes important in the post-game.
I feel like I never really got into it as much as I could, so I reckon I'll pick up the DLCs.
The story is mostly whatever, but I really enjoyed the final act.
2023
A game that I can only imagine is a big technical experiment ahead of Monster Hunter and other games in the pipeline, much like the games plot justification of repeated testing to create the ultimate mechsuit.
Exoprimal has a pretty generic core loop of: Shoot dinosaurs and occasionally shoot players.
But every so often, just enough to keep you going, it will throw something absolutely buck wild at you.
It might suddenly put both 5-player teams together against an even bigger boss, or give you an MMO style raid boss, complete with AoEs to dodge.
It all culminates in an explosive finale that brings everything together.
Story wide, it had a surprisingly endearing cast of characters that it drip feeds throughout the experience, setting itself up for more adventures if Capcom decides to come back.
I don't know if I can recommend it outside of Gamepass, and it's pretty long, but it's a hoot & a holler, and I guarantee you've never seen anything like it.
Exoprimal has a pretty generic core loop of: Shoot dinosaurs and occasionally shoot players.
But every so often, just enough to keep you going, it will throw something absolutely buck wild at you.
It might suddenly put both 5-player teams together against an even bigger boss, or give you an MMO style raid boss, complete with AoEs to dodge.
It all culminates in an explosive finale that brings everything together.
Story wide, it had a surprisingly endearing cast of characters that it drip feeds throughout the experience, setting itself up for more adventures if Capcom decides to come back.
I don't know if I can recommend it outside of Gamepass, and it's pretty long, but it's a hoot & a holler, and I guarantee you've never seen anything like it.
2022
I wasn't a huge fan of the combat, inventory management and backtracking - so, like, the survival horror bits - but that stuff is sometimes good, and everything else is incredible.
2021
I hated this, man.
I played with my wife and we found every character in it SO incredibly annoying that we just didn't even care if they improved their lives. Fuck 'em. Especially that book.
I played with my wife and we found every character in it SO incredibly annoying that we just didn't even care if they improved their lives. Fuck 'em. Especially that book.
2023
SPRAWL is, I guess, a Boomer Shooter.
Aesthetically it's pretty incredible what the one-man art/music team has done. It all comes together to create an excellent dirty Cyberpunk dystopia that you'll be wallrunning and shooting your way through.
The gameplay is very satisfying, but could probably do with a little more variation in encounters and UI.
The way the encounters and AI works, it rarely forces you to engage with the movement mid-fight.
A pretty fun selection of weapons, but few as satisfying as the starting pistols. So when enemies get a bit tanky for them, you just have to start abusing the hilariously overtuned shotgun.
Like most Boomer Shooters, the bosses are the weakest bit. Spending your last moments in a game all about dynamically moving around the environment in a flat room looking up at a big helicopter is a bummer of a finish.
Anyway, I did it in like 3hr30, so it didn't outstay its welcome!
Aesthetically it's pretty incredible what the one-man art/music team has done. It all comes together to create an excellent dirty Cyberpunk dystopia that you'll be wallrunning and shooting your way through.
The gameplay is very satisfying, but could probably do with a little more variation in encounters and UI.
The way the encounters and AI works, it rarely forces you to engage with the movement mid-fight.
A pretty fun selection of weapons, but few as satisfying as the starting pistols. So when enemies get a bit tanky for them, you just have to start abusing the hilariously overtuned shotgun.
Like most Boomer Shooters, the bosses are the weakest bit. Spending your last moments in a game all about dynamically moving around the environment in a flat room looking up at a big helicopter is a bummer of a finish.
Anyway, I did it in like 3hr30, so it didn't outstay its welcome!
2023
The logical continuation to the logical conclusion of roguelikes
2022
Ach, I mean. It's like almost good.
A surprisingly finnicky character controller that you spend way more time fighting with over tiny jumps left and right than you do enjoying it doing big swings. Loads of little things just don't feel right.
Some awful checkpointing in what I played. Sometimes you'd get launched through a barrier that you couldn't go back through, immediately hitting a checkpoint meaning you have to start the level over if you happen to have missed any collectibles. Later on it swings the other way and you'll be doing a big detour to collect some stuff, before dying to a silly bit of platforming, making you do the easy detour over and over.
The music is nice and funky, but the loops feel like they're about a minute long and are repeated for every stage of the world you're in, driving you to totally insanity by the second stage.
There's fun stuff in here, and it feels well crafted, so I feel bad about not liking it... but boy did I not like it.
A surprisingly finnicky character controller that you spend way more time fighting with over tiny jumps left and right than you do enjoying it doing big swings. Loads of little things just don't feel right.
Some awful checkpointing in what I played. Sometimes you'd get launched through a barrier that you couldn't go back through, immediately hitting a checkpoint meaning you have to start the level over if you happen to have missed any collectibles. Later on it swings the other way and you'll be doing a big detour to collect some stuff, before dying to a silly bit of platforming, making you do the easy detour over and over.
The music is nice and funky, but the loops feel like they're about a minute long and are repeated for every stage of the world you're in, driving you to totally insanity by the second stage.
There's fun stuff in here, and it feels well crafted, so I feel bad about not liking it... but boy did I not like it.
2023
A great time.
Incredibly fun movement which gets deeper as you progress, some very fun platforming, and just a pleasant wee thing overall.
The combat kind of blows, but you very rarely have to engage with it, and there's no map, but usually this isn't a problem.
The ending just sort of... ended, but I wasn't here for the plot anyhoo.
Incredibly fun movement which gets deeper as you progress, some very fun platforming, and just a pleasant wee thing overall.
The combat kind of blows, but you very rarely have to engage with it, and there's no map, but usually this isn't a problem.
The ending just sort of... ended, but I wasn't here for the plot anyhoo.
2023
I'm sure I'll come back a re-evaluate this later.
I think it was fine! Good in some places, great in a few! I'm not sure if anything in the game ever surpassed those first couple of hours from the demo.
There's some amazing set pieces that I'd be hype as fuck for in Kingdom Hearts or something, but felt a little TOO intense for everything else that was going on in XVI.
I really loved the combat at the start, but by the end you never have to engage with any of the cool mechanics any more like juggling, and it's just Zantetsuken into Diamond Dust into Gigaflare, Raging Fist counter, repeat.
It's weird that there's zero difference between spells or Eikon elements. It sucks that the core actions never change after the first couple of hours. The enemies are dumb as bricks, and some more mages to mix things up is sorely needed.
The pacing with the sidequests totally sucked throughout but really killed the momentum at some key moments; especially right before the final story quest.
Some of the core cast is great, most of the baddies are good (except the main one...), many others have no personality (Jill is a real disappointment, even in her big moments).
I thought I'd be totally buzzing for New Game+, but that makes you slog through a lot of stuff I hoped I'd be able to skip, and the combat is just super spongey.
Yeah! I dunno. For all the seriousness of most of it, the last hour or so is just a Kingdom Hearts ending.
BUT, big fan of Gav, so swings and roundabouts.
I think it was fine! Good in some places, great in a few! I'm not sure if anything in the game ever surpassed those first couple of hours from the demo.
There's some amazing set pieces that I'd be hype as fuck for in Kingdom Hearts or something, but felt a little TOO intense for everything else that was going on in XVI.
I really loved the combat at the start, but by the end you never have to engage with any of the cool mechanics any more like juggling, and it's just Zantetsuken into Diamond Dust into Gigaflare, Raging Fist counter, repeat.
It's weird that there's zero difference between spells or Eikon elements. It sucks that the core actions never change after the first couple of hours. The enemies are dumb as bricks, and some more mages to mix things up is sorely needed.
The pacing with the sidequests totally sucked throughout but really killed the momentum at some key moments; especially right before the final story quest.
Some of the core cast is great, most of the baddies are good (except the main one...), many others have no personality (Jill is a real disappointment, even in her big moments).
I thought I'd be totally buzzing for New Game+, but that makes you slog through a lot of stuff I hoped I'd be able to skip, and the combat is just super spongey.
Yeah! I dunno. For all the seriousness of most of it, the last hour or so is just a Kingdom Hearts ending.
BUT, big fan of Gav, so swings and roundabouts.
Space poverty sim.
A big clunky mech game with loads of mechs and loads of customisation. It's a great time with friends. Walking around, strategising, bursting down big bad mechs.
On your own it is MUCH worse. The teammate AI is insanely bad... like, surprisingly so.
They'll frequently stand around and not shoot anything. They'll constantly walk in front of you (there is friendly fire).
Sometimes you'll ask all three of them to just please deal with one teeny tiny mech while you fight off 4 or 5 big motherfuckers and, after you emerge victorious with an arm, a leg and a hundred thousand dollars worth of guns missing you'll turn around and your teammates will have maybe shot the last enemies leg off.
Anyway, great with friends.
A big clunky mech game with loads of mechs and loads of customisation. It's a great time with friends. Walking around, strategising, bursting down big bad mechs.
On your own it is MUCH worse. The teammate AI is insanely bad... like, surprisingly so.
They'll frequently stand around and not shoot anything. They'll constantly walk in front of you (there is friendly fire).
Sometimes you'll ask all three of them to just please deal with one teeny tiny mech while you fight off 4 or 5 big motherfuckers and, after you emerge victorious with an arm, a leg and a hundred thousand dollars worth of guns missing you'll turn around and your teammates will have maybe shot the last enemies leg off.
Anyway, great with friends.